ilC?<?>V<:^ I 



Vol. V. No. 2. 



October, 1908. 



MILWAUKEE 

NORMAL SCHOOL 

BULLETIN 



THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL 

AMENDMENT 

AND THE WISCONSIN SCHOOLS 




Publtahed Quarterly by the Statfi Normal School, Milwaukee, Wig. 

Entered June 15, 1905, at Milwaukee, Wiecontia, as second class matter 

under Act of Congress, July 16, 1894, 



ll««ogr»fn 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

COPYRIGHT OFFICE. 

No registration of title of this book 
as a preliminary to copyright protec- 
tion has been found. 

Forwarded to Order Division ^^^.i.'^.-L9-^.^ 

• f (Date) 

(Apr. 5, 1901—5,000.) ^/^^ 



THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL 
AMENDMENT 

AND THE 

WISCONSIN SCHOOLS 



The facts concerning the kindergarten movement given in this 

bulletin are obtained from "The Kindergarten in American 

Education" by Nina C. Vandewalker. They are 

given by the permission of the publishers, 

The Macmillan Company. 



copyright, 1908 
By Thh Macmillan Company 



MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN 
1908 



LIBRARY of congress] 


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THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 
AND THE WISCONSIN SCHOOLS 



The claims of early childhood are receiving increasing recognition 
at the hands of American educators, and increasing provision is being 
made for the education of 3'oung children. Statistics show that SO 
per cent, of the children who enter school drop out at the end of the 
fourth grade. Efforts to lengthen this school period at the upper end 
seem unavailing; its lengthening at the lower is therefore increasingly 
recognized as desirable. The years between four and six are pre- 
eminently the habit forming years. If these j^ears are spent in ac- 
quiring the habits of the street the school has a double task to per- 
form in the few years that constitute the school period of the great 
majority: it must correct the v/rong habits that have been formed and 
inculcate in their stead the right ones. That the school must lay hold 
of the habit forming years of early childhood if the best results of 
education are to be obtained is being increasingly emphasized by mod- 
ern educational theory. This is one of the reasons why the establish- 
ment of kindergartens in the large cities has come to be regarded as 
not alone educationally desirable, but sociologically necessary. It is 
the increasing recognition of the value of the early years for educa- 
tional purposes, and the recognition of the kindergarten as affording 
the best form of education for these early years that has enrolled a 
half million children in the kindergartens of the United States and 
added ten thousand kindergartners to the teaching force of the 
country. 

The proposed amendment to the constitution of Wisconsin raising 
the school age from four years to six is in direct opposition to the 
general trend of educational thought, practice, and legislation through- 
out the country. The country at large is increasingly recognizing the 
necessity of saving young children from the corrupting influences of 
the street; by the passage of this amendment Wisconsin would turn 
into the street between 20,000 and 30,000 children now enrolled in its 
kindergartens and schools. The country at large is seeing with in- 
creasing clearness the necessity of lengthening the school period of 



those for whom it is all too short at best; by the passage of the pro- 
posed amendment Wisconsin would reduce that period by two years 
— the years during which the impressions made are the most lasting. 
Other states to the number of twenty-four have legislated the kinder- 
garten into the school system, lowering the school age from five or 
six to four years in order to do so; by the passage of this amendment 
Wisconsin is in danger of legislating the kindergarten out of exist- 
ence within her borders. 

But why should Wisconsin take such a backward step? Is it a 
response to a demand from any class of people? Are there crying 
educational evils which such an amendment alone can remedy? It 
has been suggested that it would benefit the rural schools, but of the 
seventy-two county superintendents in the state not more than four 
consider the attendance of four year old children a serious problem, 
and forty-eight state positively that they (the four year olds) are not 
a problem. But if the benefits are wholly hypothetical and the num- 
ber of children which may be injured is known to be from 20,000 to 
30,000, how can the measure be considered as furthering the best in- 
terests of the children of the state? Wisconsin has a reputation for 
educational progress to maintain. Can the people of Wisconsin afiford 
to endanger it by passing a measure for which there is no funda- 
mental necessity, and which may work harm to an important phase of 
its educational work? 

That Wisconsin needs a longer rather than a shorter period of 
school attendance; that she needs to place more rather than less 
emphasis upon the work of her younger children, the most cursory 
glance at the educational statistics of the state will show. In eleven 
of the largest cities of Wisconsin there were enrolled during the past 
school year 79,694 children. Of these, 46,528 — more than 58 per cent 
—were enrolled in the kindergartens and in the first four grades; 
25,923 — a little more than Z2 per cent — were enrolled in the four 
grammar grades; 7,243 — a little more than 9 per cent — were enrolled 
in the high schools. Statistics show that more than 50 per cent of 
the children who enter school never get beyond the fourth grade. 
Can any one contemplate these figures without realizing that the 
shortening of the school period ought not to be attempted? Can any 
one fail to see that the emphasis of educational effort in Wisconsin 
should be upon the work of the kindergartens and primary grades? 
Have the people of Wisconsin realized these facts? Is the equipment 
for work in the kindergartens and primary grades what it should be 
— the best obtainable? Is the number of pupils per teacher such that 



good results can be reasonably expected? Have the teachers in this 
line of work the personality and training needed for the difficult task 
of giving these children the right start? Are the salaries paid such 
as to induce the right kind of teachers to remain in this important 
work? Let school boards and superintendents answer. 

It is the custom to require higher qualifications of grammar and 
high school teachers than are required of teachers in the lower 
grades, and to pay the former better salaries than are paid the latter. 
While even the high schools need improving, it may be asked whether 
the most effective method of bringing about such improvement, as 
well as of inducing more pupils to enter the high schools, is not the 
improvement of the work in the lower grades. The high school 
teacher declares that she can not do the work which the high school 
calls for because she must spend her time teaching the fundamentals 
which the children should have been taught in the grammar grades. 
The teacher in these grades likewise declares that she is obliged not 
only to teach what the children should have been taught in the 
primary grades, but to correct the bad habits formed there. No edu- 
cational structure can be strong that has a weak foundation. One of 
the main reasons why children leave school before reaching the fifth 
grade is lack of interest. What a commentary this is on the work of 
the primary grades! Is it not time for school authorities to see that 
true economy consists in giving children the right start? Will the 
passage of the proposed amendment strengthen, or will it weaken the 
beginning work? 

The claims of early childhood are receiving increasing recognition 
at the hands of American educators, and no movement has exerted a 
stronger influence in that direction than the kindergarten movement. 
The growth of that movement in the United States means infinitely 
more than the organization of kindergartens; it registers the progres- 
sive recognition of the claims of childhood not only to a place in the 
educational system, but to a kind of training adapted to its needs. 
It is because kindergarten progress has meant progress in elementary 
education that the main facts in the development of the kindergarten 
movement are here brought to the attention of Wisconsin people. 
The facts given are obtained in the main from The Kindergarten in 
American Education, already referred to. 

It is now generally known that the first kindergarten in the United 
States was opened in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1855, by the wife of 
Carl Schurz, who was herself a pupil of Froebel. During the fifteen 
or more years immediately following, several other kindergartens were 



opened by the Germans who had come to the larger cities of the 
United States after the Revolution of 1848. The only kindergarten 
of American origin established in this country before 1870 was that 
opened in Boston in 1860 by Miss Elizabeth Peabody. In 1873 the 
city of St. Louis made the experiment under the leadership of Supt. 
Wm. T. Harris and Miss Susan E. Blow, of making kindergartens a 
part of the public school system. This experiment was very success- 
ful and did much to call the attention of American educators to the 
new movement. The kindergarten at the Philadelphia Exposition, 
and others that had been established, gave the general public an op- 
portunity to become acquainted with the aims and methods of the 
new institution. As a result of the insight thus obtained kindergar- 
tens were established in many sections of the country, and as early as 
1880 the movement had gained considerable momentum. The growth 
of the movement during the early years is thus described in the book 
referred to: 

"At the end of the decade the friends of the kindergarten had 
abundant reasons to rejoice at the progress of the cause. In 1870 
there were less than a dozen kindergartens in existence, all save one 
established by Germans and conducted in the German language; in 
1880 there were not less than four hundred scattered over thirty 
states. In 1870 there was one kindergarten training school in the 
United States; in 1880 such schools had been established in the ten 
largest cities of the country and in many smaller ones. The year 
1870 saw the establishment of the first charity kindergarten; in 1880 
the new institution had become recognized as the most valuable of 
child-saving agencies, and mission kindergarten work had become so 
popular among wealthy young women as to be almost a fad. The 
practicability of the kindergarten as a part of the school system had 
been successfully demonstrated, and the logical sequence of its future 
relation to the school had been recognized by the establishment of 
kindergarten training departments in the normal school systems of 
two great states. The National Educational Association had set the 
seal of its approval upon the principles which the kindergarten em- 
bodied, and had commended the institution to the school men of the 
country for experiment and consideration. 'The lessons of the Phila- 
delphia Exposition, at which the meaning of the art and industrial ele- 
ments in education was first revealed to the American teachers,' had 
been taken to heart, and the result of the awakening it had occasioned 
had been the attempted enrichment of the elementary curriculum by 
the addition of the subjects frequently termed 'fads' — music, drawing. 



manual training, nature study, and physical culture. The fact that 
these subjects constituted an organic part of the kindergarten awak- 
ened an interest in that institution on the part of many who had thus 
far given it but little attention. They began to see in the kindergar- 
ten games the true beginning for the child's physical development; 
in its gift and occupation exercises the foundation for art and manual 
training work; and in its garden work and nature excursions the 
foundation for a true knowledge of nature. The significance of the 
kindergarten as the logical foundation for a new system of education 
had therefore begun to dawn, and the comprehensiveness of the Froe- 
belian philosophy stood out in striking contrast to the meagerness 
of the educational theory which then prevailed. The period of its 
apprenticeship was therefore over. Its advocates could silence doubt 
and criticism by pointing to results already achieved, and could urge 
its extension with the faith and enthusiasm born of the assurance that 
it met a recognized need in American life and education." 

Kindergarten progress since 1880 falls into two well marked 
periods. The first of these extends from 1880 to the time of the 
Chicago Exposition; the second from that date until the present time. 
The kindergarten in the early eighties was still in its experimental 
stage; it had demonstrated its value but as yet to the few only. Be- 
fore its general acceptance by the school system could be expected 
an important work still needed to be done in its behalf. The move- 
ment needed to be illustrated in strategic localities and the value of 
the kindergarten as a child-saving agency demonstrated. To meet 
this need a new agency came into existence in all the larger cities 
and many smaller ones — the kindergarten association. During the 
decade from 1880 to 1890 kindergartens were established and main- 
tained by such associations in nearly all the larger cities. This decade 
may therefore be appropriately called the Association Decade in kin- 
dergarten history. The work done by these associations is of great 
interest and value to the student of kindergarten history, but it has 
been discussed elsewhere and need not be repeated here. The work 
of these associations was not confined to securing the incorporation 
of the kindergarten into the school system, but such incorporation 
has been the result of association effort in many instances. The kin- 
dergarten did become a part of the school system of several of the 
larger cities during this decade — Milwaukee, New Orleans, Boston, 
and Philadelphia in particular, but such adoption did not become gen- 
eral until the decade following. The decade from 1890 to 1900 may 



8 

therefore be called the Public School Decade of the kindergarten 
movement. 

During this decade several of the larger cities, and many smaller 
ones as well, added the kindergarten to the school system. This was 
in part the result of the momentum which the movement had already 
attained, and in part the effect of the stimulus to kindergarten educa- 
tion given by the Chicago Exposition. Among the leading cities to 
adopt the kindergarten during this decade were St. Paul, New York, 
Denver, Cleveland, Kansas City, Washington, D. C, Louisville, and 
Pittsburg. Since the new century opened the example of these cities 
has been followed by Minneapolis, Baltimore, Buffalo, Toledo, Cin- 
cinnati, Detroit, and many smaller cities. In a "Kindergarten Annual" 
compiled with great care in 1903 by Miss Clara L. Anderson, the 
number of cities supporting public school kindergartens is given as 
four hundred and forty. The progress that the South has made along 
kindergarten lines during recent years is particularly gratifying. The 
fact that the kindergarten is becoming a part of the school system in 
the countries that have recently come under the control of the United 
States — Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines — is no less so. 

The general incorporation of the kindergarten into the school sys- 
tem has resulted in its adoption also by state and governmental in- 
stitutions. In the state homes for dependent and neglected children, 
and in institutions for the defective classes — the deaf, blind, and feeble 
minded — the kindergarten has proved a veritable boon. In the Indian 
schools under governmental control also the kindergarten has proved 
indispensable. The extension of the kindergarten to institutions of 
this kind was undertaken during the decade from 1890 to 1900 and the 
results have been such as to make its further extension along these 
lines inevitable. 

Of the greatest importance to the spread of the spirit of which 
the kindergarten is the symbol — the spirit of consideration for child- 
hood during the early years — is the adoption of the kindergarten by 
the state and city normal schools of the country, and the organization 
in these schools of departments for the training of kindergartners at 
public expense. That two state normal schools — those at Oshkosh, 
Wisconsin, and Winona, Minnesota — organized such departments as 
early as 1880 has been already mentioned. During the decade from 
1880-1890 such departments were added to the normal schools at 
Oswego and Fredonia, N. Y., Emporia, Kansas, to the normal schools 
of Connecticut, and to that at Ypsilanti, Michigan. Although not a 
state institution the Cook County normal school must be included in 



this list because of its wide influence under the leadership of Col. 
Francis W. Parker. During the decade from 1890 to 1900 kinder- 
garten departments were added to many more. Although the exact 
number cannot be determined, it is known that not less than fifty in- 
stitutions in twenty-one different states now have such departments. 
The training of kindergartners has not been the chief aim of these 
departments; in fact some of them make no effort in that direction. 
They aim in large part to acquaint the students in the general courses 
with the procedure of the kindergarten and the principles upon which 
such procedure is based as a matter of educational intelligence. 

"It is through the normal schools that the adjustment of Froebel's 
system to our public schools must be made," said Commissioner 
Harris in commenting upon the establishment of kindergarten de- 
partments in such schools. What may not be hoped for from the 
influence of these institutions in behalf of the kindergarten and of 
educational progress. 

The kindergarten is now too securely entrenched in the public 
school system to be dislodged, except in isolated instances, but it has 
attained its present position in the public schools much more slowly 
than its friends anticipated a generation ago. The chief reason for 
this is found in the fact that the school laws of most of the states did 
not permit of the expenditure of public school funds for the education 
of children of kindergarten age and that legislation was therefore 
necessary in the great majority before kindergartens could be main- 
tained at public expense. There are but three states — Connecticut, 
Wisconsin and Oregon — in which the school age is four years. In 
two others — Massachusetts and Rhode Island — there is no age limit 
for entering school. In eleven more — Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- 
mont, New York, New Jersey, Mississippi, Michigan, Minnesota, 
Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and the territory of New Mexico — the school 
age is five years. Children of four years are wholly within the period 
for which the kindergarten was intended, and those of five are still 
partly within that period. Whether kindergarten work may be sub- 
stituted for the customary grade work at the beginning, in states of 
this class, depends upon the school law of the individual states. In 
Maine, New Hampshire, Kansas, and Nebraska the law allows the 
local school authorities to determine this. In the other states of this 
class legislation was necessary before such substitution of kindergar- 
ten for school instruction could be made. 

The book already quoted says further: 

"In the states in which the school age is six or more the problem 



10 

is somewhat different. In Alabama and Virginia the school age is 
seven; in Texas it is eight. In all the other states not already men- 
tioned, it is six. That six-year-old children can still be benefited by 
attending kindergarten, no one will question. The kindergarten was 
primarily intended, however, for children below that age, and school 
authorities may well question the advisability of spending public 
school money for kindergartens for children of six years. If the 
children are to gain the real benefit that the kindergarten is intended 
to confer, a lowering of the school age is needed in states of this 
class. A general lowering of the school age in a given state, for the 
sake of making the establishment of kindergartens possible, must of 
necessity' impose a hardship, however, upon the localities where kin- 
dergartens cannot be established. The legislation to make the estab- 
lishment of kindergartens possible in states of this class has usually 
specified that children below the legal age should be admitted in case 
of the establishment of kindergartens only. Several of the states in 
question have enacted such legislation. Others have attempted it 
without success, and some consider that the time to effect it has not 
yet come. Missouri, the first state to establish public kindergartens, 
has a school age of six years. When the initial experiment with the 
kindergarten was made in St. Louis, children of five years were ad- 
mitted, but the legal age of entrance has since been insisted upon, and 
the children in the St. Louis kindergartens, as well as those in the 
kindergartens of Kansas City, are all, therefore, six or more years 
of age. The attempt to lower the school age has been made several 
times without success. The children who attended the first kinder- 
gartens in New Orleans were six likewise, but the age at which 
children might be admitted to kindergartens was lowered by the Con- 
stitutional Convention of 1898. In several of the Southern states that 
have adopted the kindergarten the children are of legal age — six or 
more. These facts are mentioned to show the difficulties with which 
the kindergarten had to contend in becoming a part of the school sys- 
tem. In general, 'any city, through powers inherent in its charter, 
may maintain kindergartens provided they are supported wholly by 
local taxation.' During the decade from 1880 to 1890, as far as known, 
but three states enacted legislation to make the establishment of kin- 
dergartens possible. These were Vermont, Indiana, and Connecticut. 
Cities in other states that adopted the kindergarten during this decade 
did so through powers inherent in their charters, or because legisla- 
tion was unnecessary." 

"The first state to legislate upon the subject during the decade be- 



11 

tween 1890 and 1900 was Michigan, which in 1891 passed a law author- 
izing the establishment of kindergartens for children between the 
ages of four and seven years. The next state to take action was 
Ohio, which in 1893 secured the passage of a bill authorizing the es- 
tablishment of kindergartens for children between four and six years 
of age, but providing that they must be supported wholly by local 
taxation. Although bills providing for the establishment of kinder- 
gartens had been presented to two preceding legislatures, Illinois did 
not secure the passage of a bill to that effect until 1895. Kindergar- 
tens had been opened in Chicago, although there was no legal sanction 
for this action. The bill referred to provided for the support of the 
kindergartens, not from the school tax fund of the state, but from 
the local fund. This meant that the kindergarten must be submitted 
to the vote of the people. It was not so submitted, however, until 1899, 
when unforeseen circumstances made it inevitable. A shortage of the 
school funds threatened the abolishing of the sixty-three kindergar- 
tens that had been established, and the kindergarten was therefore 
submited to the people at the spring election. The 87,000 votes cast 
in its favor to the 15,000 cast against, it placed the kindergarten upon 
a secure footing in that city from that time on. 

"The stimulus given to the kindergarten movement by the Chicago 
Exposition is shown in part by the number of states that passed laws 
before the decade closed, making the establishment of public school 
kindergartens possible. These were Washington, New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Oregon, Colorado, Louisiana, 
Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and the 
territory of Arizona. Several others, Virginia, Oklahoma, Florida, 
Texas, Utah, and Idaho, have enacted laws to the same effect since 
the new century opened. Laws authorizing the establishment of pub- 
lic school kindergartens have also been passed in West Virginia, 
Maryland, and Wyoming, but the date of the legislation in question 
could not be learned. Since Maine, New Hampshire, Kansas, Ne- 
braska, South Dakota, and Nevada consider that kindergartens may 
be established without legislation to that effect, and legislation is 
unnecessary in Massachusetts and Rhode Island because the schools 
are supported almost wholly by local taxation, it appears that the 
kindergarten has a legal foothold in all but eleven states. These are 
Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missis- 
sippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and North Dakota." 

In view of these facts concerning the growth of the kindergarten 
movement in the United States it is plain that the passage of the 



12 

amendment would place Wisconsin educationally, not in the front 
rank, but in a class with undeveloped North Dakota, indifferent Dela- 
ware, and the retarded states of the South. This alone should make 
all those who take a patriotic pride in Wisconsin's record pause and 
consider. Wisconsin has played a conspicuous part in the develop- 
ment of the kindergarten movement. Shall she disinherit the child 
of her own fostering? The first kindergarten in the United States 
was opened by a Wisconsin woman, on Wisconsin soil. The first 
large city in the country to profit by the experiment in St. Louis, of 
making the kindergarten a part of the public school system, was Mil- 
waukee, a Wisconsin city. The first state normal school in the 
United States to establish a kindergarten and organize a department 
for the training of kindergartners was a Wisconsin normal school; 
and the largest kindergarten training department connected with any 
state normal school in the United States is in Wisconsin. In 1903 
Wisconsin was the second state in the country in the number of 
cities that had adopted the kindergarten as a part of the public school 
system, and was outranked only by New York with more than twice 
its population. Should not such a record be a guaranty for the main- 
tenance of the kindergarten and a protection against endangering it? 
It is but just to the advocates of the amendment to say that they 
had no intention of injuring the kindergarten in proposing this meas- 
ure and that they have been surprised to learn that its passage might 
have, and probably would have, a disastrous effect. Mr. Ains- 
worth, the framer of the bill, said in a personal letter that if the 
amendment were to work harm to the kindergartens, "I should not 
care to have the change made, as I consider these schools of the 
greatest importance." That the kindergarten is threatened by the 
passage of the amendment is the opinion of leading attorneys. 
They contend not only that the kindergartens are in grave danger if 
the amendment be passed, but that their elimination from the school 
system is a practical certainty. Mr. John T. Kelley, the city attor- 
ney of Milwaukee, has thus expressed himself upon the subject: "I 
am of opinion that such amendment if adopted would have the effect 
of abolishing absolutely free kindergarten instruction in the public 
schools for children under the age of six years in all the schools of 
the state. I am of opinion that Sections 480c and 480d (supposed to 
protect the kindergartens) would be rendered inoperative by the 
adoption of the proposed amendment. The constitution is supreme, 
and statutes in conflict with it, whether passed before or after its 
adoption, must give way before it. As I view it, under the constitu- 



13 

tion so amended no schools could be maintained that would be free 
and without charge for tuition to children under six years of age." 

In this opinion the attorneys who have been consulted concur. Mr. 
Frank Harbach, secretary of the Milwaukee School Board, and the 
legal firm of Cary, Upham & Black, may be named among those who 
have expressed concurrence in Mr. Kelly's views. In his reply to an 
inquiry from the Superior School Board concerning the effect of the 
amendment upon the kindergartens, the Attorney General said, 
"the legislature would be prohibited from establishing as part of the 
district schools a department for children below the age of six, and 
paying for said schools out of the school fund. Under a similar pro- 
vision in the Missouri constitution the Supreme Court of Missouri 
came to the same conclusion to which I have arrived in Roach vs. 
the Board of President and Directors of the St. Louis Public Schools, 
n Mo., 484. On page 488 the Court said: 

"'The provisions of the first and sixth sections of Article 11 of the 
constitution of the state, taken together, are conclusive on this point. 
The first section declares that all persons in the state between the 
ages of six and twenty shall be gratuitously instructed in the free 
public schools therein provided for, and the sixth section in like man- 
ner declares that the public school fund therein mentioned shall be 
faithfully appropriated for establishing and maintaining the free public 
schools provided for in said article, and for no other uses or purposes 
whatsoever. The two sections, taken together, amount to both a re- 
quirement and a prohibition. By the first, free public schools for the 
gratuitous instruction of all persons in the state between the ages of 
six and twenty are required, but by the sixth, the funds thus dedicated 
to that use are prohibited from being expended for any other uses 
or purposes whatsoever. The expenditure by the defendant of its 
revenues for the purpose of admitting and instructing in said schools 
children under the age of six years, as a use of its funds not author- 
ized, but forbidden.' " 

The impression has gone abroad throughout the state that the 
kindergartens are in no danger from the passage of the amendment. 
It is in this fact that the real danger lies. But if there is no pressing 
need for such a measure on the one hand, and the very grave danger 
on the other of eliminating a valuable phase of school work, wisdom 
can not but counsel the defeat of the amendment. It is claimed by 
some that school boards could still establish kindergartens for child- 
ren below the legal age by local taxation even if the amendment were 
to be adopted, just as such boards may now establish at their dis- 



14 

cretioii night schools for persons who are above the legal age. This 
may be true, but as the persons above the legal age of twenty have 
no lawful claim upon the school system so will the children below 
the age of six have no such claim if the amendment becomes a law. 
They will be excluded from public school privileges of any kind unless 
the school board should by courtesy see fit to grant them. 

In the judgment of many attorneys, however, school boards would 
not be authorized to establish kindergartens even by courtesy. Be- 
cause of these and other possible dififerences of interpretation there 
are many who consider that in the event of the passage of the amend- 
ment, a Supreme Court decision would be necessary to determine the 
status of the kindergarten in the school system. And what if the 
ruling of that Court were adverse to the kindergarten, as in the case 
of St. Louis? To retrace the steps once taken — to secure the reversal 
of the amendment — would be the task of years, if indeed it could be 
accomplished at all. 

But were there no kindergartens to consider, would the passage 
of the amendment promote the highest interests of the children of 
the state? Illiteracy has increased in Wisconsin at an alarming rate 
during the past few years. The adoption of the amendment can not 
but increase the existing ignorance. But 50 per cent of the children 
who enter school remain to finish the fourth grade, even under present 
conditions. The passage of the amendment will materially increase 
the percentage of those who barely receive a start in the educational 
race. The burden of proof must be upon those seeking the change. 
What arguments can be urged in favor of the amendment that have 
weight enough to compensate for the dangers involved in, and the 
disadvantages resulting from, its adoption? 




LIBRARY OF CONGREl 

020 313 001 




